Question

i am using eclipse 3.5 to create a simple plugin bearing an extension point. i built it using headless pde build via ant. the plugin functions properly. i then proceeded to test its extension point by placing my plugin jar into eclipse_home/dropins with intention of eventually creating an extension. but after i start eclipse, i get the following error in its log:

!ENTRY org.eclipse.equinox.p2.core 4 0 2012-03-22 01:00:45.270
!MESSAGE Provisioning exception
!STACK 1
org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.core.ProvisionException: No repository found at file:/C:/eclipse35/dropins/MyPlugin/.
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.repository.helpers.AbstractRepositoryManager.fail(AbstractRepositoryManager.java:380)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.repository.helpers.AbstractRepositoryManager.loadRepository(AbstractRepositoryManager.java:641)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.metadata.repository.MetadataRepositoryManager.loadRepository(MetadataRepositoryManager.java:92)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.metadata.repository.MetadataRepositoryManager.loadRepository(MetadataRepositoryManager.java:88)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.reconciler.dropins.Activator.loadMetadataRepository(Activator.java:90)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.reconciler.dropins.DropinsRepositoryListener.getMetadataRepository(DropinsRepositoryListener.java:184)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.reconciler.dropins.DropinsRepositoryListener.addRepository(DropinsRepositoryListener.java:79)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.reconciler.dropins.DropinsRepositoryListener.added(DropinsRepositoryListener.java:57)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.directorywatcher.DirectoryWatcher.processFile(DirectoryWatcher.java:200)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.directorywatcher.DirectoryWatcher.scanDirectories(DirectoryWatcher.java:161)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.directorywatcher.DirectoryWatcher.poll(DirectoryWatcher.java:108)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.reconciler.dropins.Activator.watchDropins(Activator.java:491)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.reconciler.dropins.Activator.start(Activator.java:167)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleContextImpl$1.run(BundleContextImpl.java:782)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleContextImpl.startActivator(BundleContextImpl.java:773)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleContextImpl.start(BundleContextImpl.java:754)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleHost.startWorker(BundleHost.java:352)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.AbstractBundle.resume(AbstractBundle.java:370)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.Framework.resumeBundle(Framework.java:1068)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.StartLevelManager.resumeBundles(StartLevelManager.java:557)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.StartLevelManager.incFWSL(StartLevelManager.java:464)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.StartLevelManager.doSetStartLevel(StartLevelManager.java:248)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.StartLevelManager.dispatchEvent(StartLevelManager.java:445)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.eventmgr.EventManager.dispatchEvent(EventManager.java:220)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.eventmgr.EventManager$EventThread.run(EventManager.java:330)

i have tried both just placing the plugin jar directly in the dropins directory, as well as using the following directory structure: eclipse_home/dropins/MyPlugin/plugins/myplugin.jar. both approaches work just fine with 3rd party plugins, but not with mine. please let me know what i am doing wrong. thank you!

Answer 1

It seems like two problems. The “no repository found” error message looks like this problem. And then there is the issue with your plugin not starting.

First you should check if the plugin is found.
Then you should check if the plugin is resolved, i.e if all requirements are fulfilled.

If you have the plugin development version of Eclipse, then you can open the plugin registry view. See if your plugin is in the list, if so, then the atleast it has been found. Then right click on it, enable advanced operations, and after that choose diagnose. Some requirement has probably not been fulfilled.
If you dont have the Plugin version of Eclipse, you can use the osgi console. Go to console view, and choose OSGI console in the view menu.
Run command ss to list all plugins, and diag 123 where the number is the id of your plugin to diagnose it.

Also, see a previous answer to a similar question

Edit: Oh, and I have been having some serious problems getting plugins placed in the dropins catalog to work at times… You could try to copy it to the eclipse/plugins catalog directly.